1. Getting Started

Use /join to enter the game; Use /start to begin the game (2 players only). Alternatively you will find the same commands in the toolbar.

2. Aim of the Game

YINSH is played using rings and stones (see the picture to the left).

Each player has 5 rings of their colour, which are placed on the board at the start of the game. These are moved around, leaving coloured stones behind. Whenever a player gets 5 stones in a row of their colour, those 5 stones and a matching ring of that colour are removed from the board. The first player to remove 3 of their own rings wins (ie the first player to make 3 rows of five stones). Removing rings means that you’re closer to victory, but might also give your opponent an advantage on the board…

3. Gameplay

The game starts with an empty board. One player uses the black pieces, the other the white pieces. The two players take turns placing their 5 rings on the board, on any unoccupied intersection. As the game progresses these rings will always move along the lines on the board.

Each turn has two parts to it. The first part is to place a stone of your own colour inside one of your rings. To do this, click in the centre of the ring you choose. After placing the stone, you must now move the ring to a new location. Drag the ring (holding the mouse button down) along a line to an empty intersection, according to the following rules:

- A ring can never jump over another ring (even of the same colour)
- A ring can jump over one or more stones, but must stop at the first empty location after those stones. It can move over any number of empty locations before jumping the stone(s) however.

All of the stones have two sides, one white and one black. Any stones that are jumped over by a ring (of either colour) are immediately flipped over, to show the opposite colour.

Stones can only be flipped over. They can never be moved to a new location.

4. Forming Rows

If a player manages to get 5 stones of their own colour in a row, then they may remove this row from the board. They also remove one of their remaining rings (click on it), which appears by their name as a kind of score.

If several rows of 5 are formed at once (either intersecting, or a row of length 6 - see picture to the left) the player must choose which row to remove. Click on the first and last stones in the row (blue Xs appear).

It is possible to form several separate rows of 5 at once, in which case the player will remove several rings. It is also possible to form rows for your opponent, which is not often a good idea..

5. Ending the Game

The game finishes when:

A player removes their third ring from the board, and so wins;

or if the supply of stones runs out (indicated in the top-right corner of the window). The winner is whoever has removed the most rings so far.

If a move causes both players to get their third row of 5 at the same time, then the winner is whoever made that game-ending move, because they get to remove their ring first.